364, [24] pages : 24 cm

At its height, Renaissance Florence was a center of enormous wealth, power, and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence's slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line

Originally published: The rise and fall of the House of Medici. Great Britain, 1974

Reprint. Originally published: Quill, 1980

Includes bibliographical references (pages 338-345) and index

Part one: Il quattrocento -- Florence and the Florentines -- The rise of the Medici -- Enemies of the Albizzi -- Exiles and masters -- Archbishops and architects -- War and peace -- Artists and mourners -- Part two: 1464-1492 -- Piero the gouty -- The young lorenzo -- The pope and the pazzi -- The saviour of Florence -- The needle of the Italian compass -- Lorenzo: patron, collector and poet -- Part three: 1492-1537 -- Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici and the friar from Ferrara -- The excommunicant -- Return of the Medici -- "Papa Leone!" -- The march on Rome -- Siege and murder -- Part four: 1537-1743 -- Duke Cosimo I -- The heirs of Cosimo -- Ferdinando II and the French princess -- Cosimo III and the grand prince Ferdinando -- The last of the Medici

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